Existing approaches to stereo depth perception are dependent on tight manufacturing tolerances in the assembly of the sensor arrays. If the distance between the sensors is not tightly controlled, or, in the case of cameras, if the optical axes of the cameras are not parallel, then existing approaches will compute inaccurate depth measurements and there will be significant variation in accuracy from one assembly to the next. Achieving reliably accurate depth adds significant manufacturing and calibration expense.
A method that reliably produces accurate depth measurements despite common sensor array misalignments is thus necessary.